Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme application

Stages of the application process

The application process for Impact has been designed to measure the following key skills and behaviours. These are not conditional on your prior work or life experience, but they will show you what it’s like to work in a local council. 

1. Working with others
   The ability to collaborate with a variety of individuals and organisations in a way that demonstrates an understanding of diversity, political sensitivity, and emotional intelligence. Meets and manages expectations to deliver outcomes through positive working relationships.
2. Persuasive communication
   The ability to communicate persuasively with confidence both orally and in writing demonstrating the ability to influence. Actively listens and balances diverse perspectives in order to articulate opinions and evidence with purpose. Selects the most appropriate communication channel to suit the intended audience
3. Planning and organisation
   The ability to manage time and prioritise workload effectively to achieve objectives and see things through to completion. Swiftly adjusts approach to address emerging needs and changing situations, priorities and landscapes.
4. Drive for results
   The ability to act on own initiative and take responsibility for decisions to achieve results. This is demonstrated with a tenacity to pursue of goals and challenge the status quo to bring about change.
5. Analysis and problem solving
   The ability to accurately identify, analyse and interpret complex information from a wide range of sources to understand problems, draw conclusions and deliver well-informed solutions.
6. Motivation for learning and personal resilience
   Demonstrates a passion for personal growth, proactively seeking out opportunities for personal learning and development. Demonstrates mental resilience, with the ability to respond effectively and to adapt and grow in the face of change and challenge.
7. Commitment to local government and the wider community
   Has an understanding of local government and the context in which it operates. Demonstrates a passion and commitment towards serving and supporting the needs and interests of the local community to bring about meaningful, long-term, sustainable impacts.
8. Leadership potential
   Ability to take charge and assume responsibility for driving tasks and projects forward. Challenges the status quo and leads by example, developing and motivating others to achieve shared objectives through personal accountability and a commitment to excellence.

The first stage of the process requires you to sit an online test designed specifically for the programme – a situational judgement test (SJT) – created to examine your response to realistic workplace situations and your understanding of the key skills and behaviours. It has been developed in partnership with managers in councils and graduates on our programme to provide the right level of difficulty, and to give you an insight into what you may experience on the programme. The best way to prepare is to review our key skills and behaviours, and to practice, so we recommend you review our sample SJT questions. 

We want to take the guesswork out of assessment. The Impact is all about finding graduates with the right balance of our key skills and behaviours, which you’ll find listed on this page. This might still feel like a bit of a mystery to you, so here are our top tips for the assessment process:

• Read up on local government so you understand what working in the sector might be like: what kind of areas are councils working in, and what issues are they facing.
• Try attending or watching a recording of one of our webinars to find out more about the programme and the assessment process.
• Check out our Why local government? page for more information and some helpful links, but something as simple as looking on your own local council’s website and reading some local news are a great start.
• Practice as much as you can! Sceptical about assessment centres, or uncertain of what they involve? We have a coaching offer and support available from the Impact BAME Network.
• The final step is interviewing with local councils, and we'll provide guidance around this too.
• If you are a current student, don’t hesitate to contact your careers service for any additional training sessions they might be delivering.
• If you’ve had extra time to complete assessments at university, you have a disability, or you feel that you would benefit from additional support in our assessment process, please get in touch with us before you complete any of your assessments. Our team will arrange a confidential conversation with you and make recommendations on this basis. No information is passed on to local authorities without your consent, and requesting or being granted any more of assistance will not disadvantage your application at all. We are not able to apply any retroactive support or consideration, so please get in touch from the start on [email protected].

Impact delivered a set of virtual workshops to equip candidates for their application process. You can view the recordings of the workshops.